Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-01

| man VINO lets rum alone has the advantage
All young men should note this fact and b,
guided thereby.
PROHIBITION DOES PROHIBIT.
valuable Testimony Showing the Good
Ehects of Prohibition in Various States.
Many new testimonies have been added
Inc past year to the great army of witnesses
as to the good effects of prohibition. The
Governors of prohibition States testify as
follows: go
Hon. J. R. Bodwell, Governor of Maine,
IN MS annual address, in January, 1887,
says:
I'm from three-fourths to four-tifths of
the towns of the State the law is we'll
enforced, and has practically abolished the
sale OF splrituous and malt liquors as a
beverage. In the larger cities and towns,
on the seaboard and at railway centers, it
has been found more dificultto secure per-
feet compliance with the law, but it can
still be said that at very few points in the
State is liquor openly sold. The otfenses
against the law are in large part clandestine.
and, therefore, difficult to detect and expose
by legal testimony. But it is great moral
gain when the liquor-seller is driven from
the light of day to secret places, and to
stealthy devices to carry on his hurtful and
demoralizing traffic.
ton that even with this imperfect enforce
ment at certain points, the law has been
OF lmmeasureable value in reducing the
liquor traffic, and has correspondence in
creased the wealth of the State by increas-
ing the sobriety of the people and saving
the fruits of industry. The experience Of
Maine for the last thirty years abundantly
justifies the adoption Of the prohibitory
system"
Hon. Geo. P. Wetmore, Governor of
Rhode Island, in his annual address in
1887, said:
"All things considered, think it NAV
fairly be said that as good results have
been obtained in its enforcement as could
have been reasonably anticipated, and as
an evidence of this may cite the official
records OF the police departments of the
cities OF Providence and Newport, whose
statements, which assume to be correct,
indicate large reduction Of drunkenness
and of that class of disorder and misery
which intoxicants provoke and stimulate. )"
Hon. John A. Martin, Governor of
Kansas, in his annual address in January,
1857, said:
"A great reform has certainly been &C.
complished in Kansas. Intemperance is
steadily and surely decreasing. In thou
sands of homes where want and suffering
and wretchedness were once familiar
guests, plenty, happiness and contentment
now abide. Thousands of wives and chill
dren are better clothed and fed than thew
were when the saloons absorbed all the
earnings of husbands and fathers. The
marvellous growth of the State during the
past six years has been accompanied by an
equally marvellous moral progress, and it
can be fairly and truthfully asserted that
in no portion of the CIVILIZED world can a
million and half Of people be found who
are more temperate than are the people of
Kansas"
Hon. VIM. Larrabee, Governor of Iowa.
in letter, April. 1887, said:
"In eighty out of ninety mine counties in
the State prohibition is enforced, and
IN the remaining nineteen counties it is
partially enforced. That no property has
been depreciated by its enforcement, as So
looms make room for better and more legit-
innate business. That the enforcement of
the law has had no noticeable effect upon
the people beyond causing removal from
the State OF some incurable dispensers and
perhaps incurable consumers. The effects
OF prohibition upon the general welfare and
habits OF the people are decidedly whole
some."
Rev. Thomas Bowman, Bishop of the NJ.
q. Church, says:
I have been twice through Maine lately.
was in just such towns where you would
most likely find evasions Of the prohibitory
law-Portland, Bangor, and others. don't
care what the enemies of prohibition say.
70 my observation, and from all that I
heard and experienced, temperance in
Maine-more than that, prohibitions
1oci1o6 o,,l
ism, with all their attendant disgrace, are
nowhere visible. I found this, too, to be
the case in Kansas. Iowa is q little differ
emit. In the country prohibition prevails.
In the larger cities the foreign element
seems to defy the law in many instances.
The difficulty is being surmounted, and
prohibition will yet triumph"
Ex-Mayor George Hillyer, of Atlanta. in
a recent letter says:
"The truth is, there is not one-tenth of
the drunkenness in Atlanta that there used |
to be in the days of the bar-rooms. The
reform in the drinking habits of the people
IS most unmistakable. and in the very
highest degree gratifying. Taken alto
yether, the prohibition law is to-day better
enforced in the city of Atlanta than is the
aw against concealed weapons, or any of !
hat class of misdemeanors, or, make !
bold to say, the prohibitory law of any
other city in the United States.
What we have achieved by prohibition
s worth all, and thousand times more
han, it has cost us in the struggle to carry
t. Ever since its adoption prohibition has
been very decided benefit in material
but of very much greater bene-
it in the moral we'll being of the people,"
From the advance sheets of the Secretary
If State of.Iowa we find the statement that
n fifty five counties of the State there was
lot single person committed to the county
all during the year. During the year there
we're in the entire State but 1,645 convic-
ions for criminal otfenses, an average Of
,ut 16 for each county. The receipts for
ines for the year were $46,326.91, which is
! legitimate revenue" derived from the
iquer traffic.
G. R. Brayton, Chief of the State Police
If the State of Rhode Island, in letter to